AfriGeneas Free Persons of Color Forum

Howdee Rodney
I just wanted to throw this in. Each states history will vary. I am not saying this with pride of one side over the other or to dismiss anyones back ground. As you know yourself when the French/Europeans arrived in Louisiana & began exploring & expanding, according to most history books, they began trading & taking advantage of the Natives people from the start. By the time the Negroes began arriving from Africa, the Native people were either dying of diseases or being murdered, in hiding, or intertwining with the Europeans. Not to say that Negroes & the Natives did not intermingle, but to what degree? Was it that much interactions between the two groups that we have such a large portion of the Afr. Amer. population saying that they have Indian ancestry in Louisiana? By the turn of the century the Europeans & Negroes far out numbered the Native people. I too have gone over the census reports & seen the changes. As one woman of the Homua people told me "their people intermarried with the Europeans to get along." She also stated that "the Natives that fought back ended up with reservations & recognition. " The trail of tears did not pass this far south in La. If we were in Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Flordia, or Oklahoma I would agree, but in Louisiana the numbers just don't add up to me. We have more European blood in us then Native Amer. in La. then we would like to believe. That is why the more we have heard of our Native Amer. side & seek it the less we find, but the less we seek of our European side, the more we find. Keep up the good work Rodney. Ricky